Failed to Convert at 2%

[admin]

I'm using VMware Converter to convert a physical machine but it keeps failing at 2%. I get the followng error:

ERROR: Failed to take snapshot of a source volume.

Possible causes include not having any NTFS volumes on Windows XP or Windows 2003 source systems,

and not having enough free disk space.

I've tried running as Local Administrator when using Converter by doing "Run-As". The user I'm logged in as is also part of the administrators groups. Using the local admin is slightly better because I stopped seeing vsnap does not have permissions in my log but I'm still failing for some reason.

I've attached my log to this post. I'm also a VMware employee. Private message me if you want my work email address.

I also ran into an error earlier trying to install Converter. I got "Error 1327: Invalid drive F:\". After some Google searches, I found this Microsoft KB that solved the problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;327763 (Adding it here for future reference in case someone else comes across the same issue again).

[mike_laspina]

Hi,

These execelent tips from Eric should help, he has covered just about everything.

I would add that you should stop services like antivirus or any service that can interact with volume snapshot activity.

[admin]

Thanks for the help. None of the suggestions worked. I also just realized that I'm still getting the "vsnap does not have admin rights" error. I was looking at the client log instead of the agent log earlier. I'm currently running as local admin and I installed Converter under the same credentials. Any idea? What credentials should volume shadow copy be running as? It's currently set to local system.

[admin]

I've attached a copy of the agent log to this post. Also, I'm not sure if this helps but the destination is an external hard drive.

[mike_laspina]

Volume shadow is fine with the Local System account

[mike_laspina]

You need to verify the file and folder perms for the source volume. Make sure system has Full on the volume.

Does the Converter Agent service have local admin or system on the source system?

It's looks like a permissions issue to me.

[admin]

Converter service is running as Local System, same as Volume Shadow Copy.

[admin]

I've just verified tha System has Full permission on the source volume and I've even reapplied the permissions down to the child objects. Still no go with the same error.

[mike_laspina]

Is the VSS service actually running on the source system?

What do you see in the source system and application event logs?

Check if this driver is loaded.

"stcbasic.sys not installed or snapshot creation failed"

I think stcbasic may only be on W2K so it may be irrelevent for XP.

Message was edited by: mike.laspina

[admin]

Yep, I had the same intuition last night and found that the VSS service was dying. I found a series of articles on how to repair it but it involves a bit of registry modifications and COM registering. I'll give it a try later tonight and post the results afterwards.

Thanks.

[theanykey]

FYI:

Your 1327 error is a pass-through error delivered from Windows. You can see what the error # means in plain english by using DOS commands:

C:\>net helpmsg 1327

Logon failure: user account restriction. Possible reasons are blank passwords not allowed, logon hour restrictions, or a policy restriction has been enforced.

In your agent logs, I noted the following:

Creating snapshot using vss

Error 2147754767 creating snapshot.

Shapshot creation failed. driver=vss

Creating snapshot using vsnap

Vsnap does not have admin rights

The error regarding "stcbasic.sys not installed or snapshot creation failed. err=2" is what converter uses for Windows 2000 and NT4 machines. This is always applied after a vss failure. So in simple terms, it first checks for vss (volume shadow copy service) assuming the machine is win2k3 or xp. If that fails, it then tries stcbasic (yet the service is called stcp2v30) assuming the machine must be win2k or NT4. Since this machine is XP, the 1st failure is correct, the 2nd is to be expected and unrelated.

Confirm that the VMware Converter related services are started on the source operating system.

1. Open a command prompt. For more information, see Opening a command or shell prompt (1003892).

2. Type net start "tcp/ip netbios helper" and press Enter.

3. Type net start vstor2-p2v30 and press Enter.

4. Type net start ufad-p2v and press Enter.

5. Type net start vss and press Enter.

If you receive an invalid response on any of these, you may want to uninstall all converter references from add/remove programs and reinstall again.

Please hit my profile, take my name and "vmweb" my extension. You can call me for any converter related needs.

[admin]

I got it! So basically, I followed the instructions in this link:

I didn't follow the instructions exactly but it pointed me in the right direction.

My Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator was messed up so I had to run "msdtc -resetlog" followed by "net start msdtc" (read before doing it, there's a warning message to go along with this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916926). After that I start the "MS Software Shadow Copy Provider" followed by "Volume Shadow Copy". I didn't realize that there were two different services and have been only paying attention to "Volume Shadow Copy". I've kicked off the import and haven't seem the same error yet. Perhaps we should update our error message as well since it's misleading.

Thanks for all the help.

[mike_laspina]

Nice work hang,

that was a nasty one.

Thanks for the info.

[theanykey]

Incredible. Thank you for this information.

Can I ask how you were able to discover this as being a possible cause? Did you find leading information inside your event logs? If so, would you mind posting that event log so google searches can also find this fix?

[Subversive]

Hi, I am having the same error. I am attaching the converter and the client log. The symptoms look exactly the same as this thread, but I am only having this problem with Windows 2000 server machines. Any suggestions would be welcomed, as it's happening with several servers I wish to convert. Thanks.

[theanykey]

stcbasic.sys not installed or snapshot creation failed. err=2

Confirm that the VMware Converter related services are started on the source operating system.

1. Reboot

2. Open a command prompt.

3. Type net start "tcp/ip netbios helper" and press Enter.

4. Type net start vstor2-p2v30 and press Enter.

5. Type net start ufad-p2v and press Enter.

6. Type net start stcp2v30 and press Enter.

If that still fails, you might need to reinstall converter. First uninstall via add/remove programs, reboot, install, reboot.

Also, look inside your event viewer (logs) for any failures to start a service.

[Subversive]

I followed the steps requested. Here is the output:

1. Done

2. Done

3. The service name is invalid

4. The requested service has already been started

5. The requested service has already been started

6. The service name is invalid.

So, this seems to confirm that stcbasic is not installed. How do I go about getting it installed?

[Subversive]

Also, regarding step 3, if I change the input to net start "tcp/ip netbios helper service" then I get "The requested service has already been started. Just so we don't chase any wrong leads. I definitely think it's step 6 where the true cause lies.

[theanykey]

If you have already rebooted then it looks like a bad agent install.

goto add/remove programs and remove anything vmware-converter related.

reboot

log in as the "built-in" local administrator and install converter directly onto this physical 2000 box with default options

reboot

test again using the "built-in" local administrator account

[Subversive]

Hi, unfortunately I have already installed it as local administrator. In fact given all the issues I've been having with conversions, I usually go straight to that. Is there any way to install the stc service by itself?